On anniversary of Alcorn’s death, did anyone fix society?

Julianna Powers, a Kings Mills High School student, holds a candle during the vigil to remember the life of Leelah Alcorn, a 17 year-old transgender girl, who committed suicide last week, in Kings Mills, Ohio Saturday, Jan. 3.(Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)Buy Photo

Lee Ann Conard wants to write a letter. For nearly a year, words have swirled in the doctor’s head, resisting composition. When she tries to talk it out, tears fall. She seeks to offer respect to the parents who did their best for the child they called Joshua.

“They loved their child,” she said, “and they tried to help their child.”

But at 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2014, that child, just 17, stepped in front of a truck going the speed limit on southbound Interstate 71 near South Lebanon in Warren County. A day later, the child’s suicide note blew up the Internet with anguished words about gender identity and parental rejection and “Christian therapy.” The note was signed with a name the child chose, and thus the world called her Leelah Alcorn.

The death occurred amid a broadening worldwide campaign to push for basic acceptance of transgender people. By then, no less an establishment marker than Time magazine had proclaimed a tipping point in the social revolution. Advances in medicine have opened a new understanding, that transgender people may well be expressing a normal – if rare – human variation.

But Alcorn’s suicide note, released on the social media site Tumblr, injected renewed urgency with its final words: “Fix society. Please.” Some parents awakened to the reality that gender issues can arise in youth, and a transgender child needs medical care. The price of denying or fighting it can be catastrophic.

Alcorn’s death also trained a global focus on an unexpected nexus of the accelerating movement: conservative, tradition-loving Cincinnati.

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A large crowd gathered at Kings Mills High School for a candle light vigil to remember the life of Leelah Alcorn in Kings Mills, Ohio Saturday, January 3, 2015.
The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

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Around the world, the death of a child from Kings Mills, Ohio, triggered an outpouring. Candlelight vigils, where people carried signs urging others to “fix society” were held in New York City; in Auckland, New Zealand; in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Leelah Alcorn was a transgender woman, who committed suicide Sunday, December 28, 2014. She left a suicide note on Tumblr that said, "The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was, they're treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights." She continued,"My death needs to mean something."(Photo: Provided/Abigail Jones)

On the Internet, where transgender youth have found a safe space to talk on Tumblr, the suicide note was not the only Alcorn meme. A selfie captured the 6-foot-2 teenager posing at a mirror in a short white dress, brown hair cropped and spiky, eyes downcast. Artists adapted the photograph to add long wavy locks or the words “rest in power.” Twitter crackled with the hashtag #HerNameWasLeelah. Online gamers created a “Jam for Leelah” competition for games with trans-friendly designs.

While the public suicide note was unusual, the act of suicide among transgender people was not. A University of California, Los Angeles estimate in 2014 pegged the rate of suicide attempts among them at 41 percent. Not long after Alcorn’s death, the suicides of two more transgender teenagers brought new alerts on Twitter: #HisNameWasZander, #HisNameWasAsh.

Transgender people make up a sliver of the population – a 2011 UCLA survey estimated about 700,000 in the United States – but they are among the most vulnerable of modern society. They face greater violence and the prospect of early death. In 2015, at least 23 transgender women, most of color, were murdered in the United States — a record number. Cincinnati was not immune to that violence. This summer, a transgender woman was shot in the face here.

Experts say many transgender people get kicked out of their homes as teenagers, enter foster care and face poverty. Ohio employers can legally deny jobs to gay or transgender people, or fire them. Ohio property owners can refuse housing or evict them, forcing many into homelessness. Hamilton County’s foster care clinic has questioned more than 200 teenagers in the past 18 months and found that more than 15 percent are gay or transgender.

This month, Lighthouse Youth Services announced a $35,000 gift to its Safe & Supported outreach for gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The donors were two Cincinnatians who also made news this year: Jim Obergefell, who took the landmark gay marriage case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and his lawyer, Allen Gerhardstein.

“The Leelah Alcorn story was soul-crushing for so many of us in the community,” said Melissa Meyer, executive director of Safe & Supported. “She is who I often think of when I think about how I can create a space for youth that will be a soft place to land.”

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Lindsey Deaton shows a poster of "Hope Notes" for Leelah Alcorn during a press conference at the Woodward Theater on Dec. 28 - the one-year anniversary of Leelah Alcorn's death.(Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

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The Alcorn effect rippled through government and entertainment. Two weeks after the death, the creator of an Amazon.com drama about an older transgender woman mentioned Alcorn in accepting a Golden Globe award on live TV. Pop singer Miley Cyrus said she was inspired by Alcorn’s memory to start a foundation for gay and transgender youth.

President Obama uttered the word transgender during his State of the Union address, the first time a chief executive used that term in official remarks.

Activists created a petition for “Leelah’s Law,” to ban conversion or reparative therapy, usually offered by clergy or religious counselors, to change sexual orientation or gender identity. In four months, the whitehouse.gov petition collected more than 120,000 signatures, and Obama called on the states and Congress to act.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter directed the armed services to figure out how transgender people could serve in uniform. Medicare no longer automatically refused to pay for gender-reassignment surgery.

TV personality and activist Caitlyn Jenner speaks onstage during the Point Foundation's Annual Voices On Point Gala at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on October 3, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.(Photo: Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Point Foundation)

The transition of Caitlyn Jenner amplified the discussion. The 1976 Olympic gold-medal-winning decathlete and a 21st century fixture of reality TV sat down for a nationally broadcast reveal in April. Interviewer Diane Sawyer referred to Alcorn during the program. Then Jenner struck a pose for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine and received an award for courage from ESPN.

But later, Jenner said that one of the hardest things about being a woman was choosing what to wear and that “presentation” is important for transgender people. Some activists said those remarks suggested Jenner did not appreciate the larger forces at work for transgender people who can’t afford stylists and business managers.

The pushback on the transgender movement intensified, though it concentrated less on Scripture and more on practicalities. Conservatives scolded Obama for meddling in parental decisions about child-rearing. Last month, Houston voters rejected an anti-discrimination ordinance to cover transgender people because opponents claimed men would pretend to be transgender so that they could prey on women in bathrooms. Readers accused The Enquirer of pushing an agenda by writing about transgender people and referring to Alcorn by a chosen name rather than the legal name.

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In Cincinnati, some people took Alcorn’s challenge to fix society as a moral imperative. More transgender men and women across the region chose to come out. Supporters moved to help them live better. The Kroger Co. announced in October that the grocery company would extend health insurance to cover the necessary medicine for employees who are transgender or have transgender dependents. Cincinnati’s chapter of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network added three more youth counselors this year.

Activists created the Cincinnati Trans Resource Committee to develop an infrastructure with government and nonprofit agencies. Evelyn Heflin is a social worker at Central Clinic, which offers mental health care to Medicaid and uninsured citizens of Cincinnati. Spurred by Alcorn’s death, Heflin opened a clinic tailored to transgender patients, and so far, 50 are enrolled.

“Folks have a hard time,” Heflin said, “not that they are uncertain about their identification, but it’s navigating this world that’s harsh and even cruel to trans folks.”

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Dr. Lee Ann Conard works at the transgender clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital that opened in July 2013. In the last year the number of patients at the clinic has tripled.(Photo: The Enquirer/ Meg Vogel)

Lee Ann Conard oversees the 2 ½-year-old Transgender Health Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She treats patients from age 5 to 21, providing counseling and hormone treatment that allows for gender transition early in life. Since Alcorn’s death, the clinic caseload has tripled from 120 to 360 patients. First appointments are booked out six months.

“Families aren’t just shoving this under the rug,” Conard said. “They’re bringing in their kids. No matter where the parents are, no matter how upset they are, they’re at least bringing in their kids. They’re seeing this is way better than reparative therapy. And we have people who still aren’t on board, but their kids still come to clinic.”

This year, Conard drew in hospital chaplains to offer spiritual help to clinic families. Chaplain Susan Jelinek, an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, said, “In the best scenario, we are searching for the way we can feel the most comfortable in our own skin because this is what God created us to be.”

Jonah Yokoyama is a registered nurse at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He also is executive director of Heartland Trans Wellness Group, a nonprofit that for more than a decade has offered support to transgender people in Cincinnati, especially teenagers and young adults. Soon after the new year, the organization will move into permanent offices at Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church – in no small part, Yokoyama said, because Heartland’s workload exploded after Alcorn’s death.

“I continue to lose clients, who never make the news, who never even get marked down in history as gay or transgender,” Yokoyama said. “While the whole country knows about Leelah, I know about a whole lot more folks who’ve died in suicide. But I also feel good about where the movement is going. I can literally see trans folks who start out with us so scared, so anxious and depressed, and I watch them blossom. It’s amazing.”

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Councilman Chris Seelbach spoke to local media and community members on the one-year anniversary of the death of Leelah Alcorn at a press conference and call to action by the transgender community of Greater Cincinnati at the Woodward Theater on December 28.(Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

Two weeks before Christmas, Cincinnati City Council Member Chris Seelbach introduced the nation’s first city ordinance to ban reparative therapy for minors. Many medical and mental health organizations reject the practice as damaging and possibly suicide-triggering in children. Forty-seven states allow it – although state Reps. Denise Driehaus and Debbie Phillips have tossed a bill in the hopper that would ban it in Ohio.

Ahead of the vote, the city council got a tide of emails pleading not to remove this treatment option for parents.

Dr. William Russ, once chief psychologist for Cincinnati Public Schools, wrote of his alarm. “In over 30 years’ work in our school system, while there were requests for support for troubled youth, there were NO referrals for conversion therapy, and I can count on one hand referrals to outside psychologists for sexual identity issues.”

Passage, on a 7-2 vote, came as a triumph for Seelbach. From the first hours after Alcorn’s death, he led public efforts for greater awareness of the city’s transgender citizens. “Leelah’s death sparked conversations around water coolers and dinner tables. What does it mean to be transgender? Why are these people asking to be treated equally? That conversation is leading to change.”

On Thursday, the Ohio Department of Transportation erected signs for the Adopt-A-Highway program in memory of Leelah Alcorn, 17, who committed suicide on that portion of road Dec. 28.(Photo: Provided)

Alcorn would have turned 18 on Nov. 15. A few days later, a work crew from the Ohio Department of Transportation stopped at the interchange of I-71 southbound at Exit 28 to South Lebanon. They erected two Adopt-A-Highway signs reading: “In memory of Leelah Alcorn.” The markers were the effort of Chris Fortin, a Kings Mills High School graduate who had driven through that interchange countless times and wanted a memorial there.

This year, Cincinnati came to the front line of a social revolution, and many residents came to understand that the stakes in life are never higher than when children, whoever they are, cannot see a future.

Tiffany Neri embraces Cassie Thompson during a group hug Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015 at the end of the vigil to remember the life of Leelah Alcorn, a 17 year-old transgender girl, who committed suicide in Kings Mills, Ohio. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Christian Jackson, a transgender woman, answers questions from local media on Fountain Square at a "Die-In" to remember the transgender women who have been killed this year on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

(Clockwise from left) Samantha Grubbs, Jenny Grubbs and Chloe Bartram participate in a "Die-In" to remember the transgender women who have been killed this year around the country on Fountain Square Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Members of TransSaints ministry gather in the kitchen for a prayer, after preparing a meal for the community, at Grace Episcopal Church in College Hill Wednesday, April 15, 2015. FE Harris leads the TransSaints and is a transgender man. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Daniel Ginn, a student in his last year at Northern Kentucky University and president of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, poses for a portrait on NKU's campus. Ginn, a transgender student, made the transition to male during his first few years at NKU and has felt nothing but support from his peers and administrators. The Enquirer/Amanda Rossmann

Paula Ison, 65, reads her favorite verse from the bible, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will given you rest," Matthew 11:28 outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Hebron, Kentucky Saturday, May 23, 2015. Ison is a transgender woman and a Mormon. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Temeka Edwards hangs a poster that commemorates the life of her daughter, Tiffany, a transgender woman. Tiffany was murdered in Walnut Hills June 26, 2014. The man accused of the homicide is in the Hamilton County jail awaiting trial. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Britney McGannon transitioned after her grandmother died of ovarian cancer. Her "Be Strong" tattoo is for her grandmother and the bible verse is about not judging others. She said, "It gets me through the hard times when people say things about myself." The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Ashton Dotson works the drive-thru window at Skyline in Delhi. He likes to entertain customers and tell them jokes, while they are waiting for their food. Dotson is a transgender man. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Zay Crawford, 12, braids her hair in her Yellow Springs home. Crawford is a transgender girl. When she discovered that she was a girl in a boy's body at a young age, she said, " I was trapped in a cage a million miles away. And there was no way to get out." The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Pastor Terry Hocker, 56, poses for a portrait inside All Saints Episcopal Church Wednesday, May 13, 2015 where his Bound by Truth and Love Ministries congregation gathers every Sunday. Hocker is a transgender man and opens the doors to his church to all people. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Pins with "Leelah" written on them were passed out Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015 to the large crowd, who gathered at Kings Mills High School for a candle light vigil to remember the life of Leelah Alcorn, a 17 year-old transgender girl, who committed suicide in Kings Mills, Ohio. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

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All year, Lee Ann Conard wanted to write that letter. It was hard to find the time. The Transgender Medicine Clinic ate up her days and nights. Yet the anniversary of this one death approached with a weight that demanded acknowledgement.

One recent day, Conard sat at her office desk and wiped tears from her cheeks, saying how hard this time of year must be for two grieving parents. She needed to assure them that whether they know it or not, whether they understand it or not, this one life saved many others.

“I’m not going to call her Leelah. I’m not going to call him Joshua. I’m just going to say your child. We’re fixing society because of your child. That’s what I want my letter to say.”